W3CUKI BBC Oxford 18042011 Final
•
1 like•369 views
this is a short talk i gave on behalf of BBC R&D at the launch of the W3C UK & Ireland office in Oxford.
![[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (7)
Similar to W3CUKI BBC Oxford 18042011 Final
Similar to W3CUKI BBC Oxford 18042011 Final (20)
More from BBC
More from BBC (9)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
W3CUKI BBC Oxford 18042011 Final
- 1. BBC’s Future Research into Accessibility Dr Adrian Woolard, Project Director (North Lab) Dr Mike Evans, Research Lead (Accessibility & User Experience) (w/ apologies) BBC Research & Development W3C UK & Ireland Office Launch Keble College, Oxford, UK 18 th April 2011
- 3. A bit of background…
- 6. BBC R&D: research priorities Fabric initiative Archive DVBT-2 YouView Storage HiFi data capture Data manipulation in software Commodity technology Metadata standards & brokering ‘ IP glass-to-glass’: the modern media network Hybrid of IP & Broadcast networks New editorial formats and UIs Managing diversity Network service enablers Flexible spectrum Managing diversity
- 11. With permission from contributors to BBC study on Access Services 2008
- 12. Contributing to the broadcast state of the art…
- 16. BBC Education Text to Speech Internet Enhancer (BETSIE) http:// www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie/index.html
- 22. iPhone Client
- 23. iPhone Client
- 24. Director’s Commentary app libffi5
- 26. Other examples of relevant work…
- 27. Other recent work: Alternative Audio
- 28. Other recent work: Remote controls in home – UX study & prototyping
- 30. New Data Driven ‘Services’ enabled by Accessibility http:// channelography.rattlecentral.com / http:// backstage.bbc.co.uk/data_art /
- 31. Dual Screen ‘Viewing Companion’
- 34. Thank You! Dr Adrian Woolard Project Director (North Lab) BBC Research & Development, Future Media Interim Lab, OB Base, New Broadcasting House Oxford Road, Manchester M60 1SJ (until June 2011) E: [email_address] T: adew or BBCRD W: http:// www.bbc.co.uk /rd Relevant Links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/researchanddevelopment/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/whitepaper194.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/whitepaper193.shtml https:// github.com/bbcrd/UCMythTV http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/whitepaper185.shtml http:// backstage.bbc.co.uk/data_art / http:// channelography.rattlecentral.com /
Editor's Notes
- Welcome & thanks to W3C Intro to me & role – director of R&D North lab and overseeing research into Accessibility & User Experience. I’m going to talk for hopefully 15 min on Overview of BBC R&D & our thoughts on the New Broadcasting System Summarize BBC R&D contribution to the current state of art in Access Services Outline the future challenges in creating accessible services - changing audience, changing platforms and role of universal standards Discuss recent/ current R&D projects
- An interesting quote from Lord Broers – that frames much of the approach of BBC work
- BBC R&D department is made up of 130 engineers, mathematicians and scientists located over three labs; West London, Central London and Manchester / soon to be MediaCityUK in Salford. But why does the BBC have this capability? There are two reasons Reason 1. We have to: It’s written in tablets of stone. Well, in the BBC’s Royal Charter and Agreement. This is essentially our constitution. Clause 87 of the Charter Agreement states, among other things, that (1) The Executive Board must ensure that the BBC conducts research and development activities geared to the promotion of the BBC’s Public Purposes and which aim to maintain the BBC’s position as a centre of excellence for research and development in broadcasting and other means for the electronic distribution of audio, visual and audiovisual material, and in related technologies. Reason 2: It’s actually quite useful: Carrying out R&D is not some regulatory burden or constitutional oddity. It has a clear role. We describe this through the following mission statement. To define the future BBC, drive UK competitiveness and benefit digital citizens by generating knowledge, assets and capabilities that advance the technological state of the art of the media industries.
- Here is a short summary of the many achievements of BBC R&D – We develop: Broadcast and Future Media Systems – in Software and hardware Participate in developing open standards MPEG, DVB, ETSI, SMPTE, etc… and increasing W3C
- This is a snapshot (and quite ‘busy’) of our current work spread across the media value chain – production, media management, distribution & audience Experience. We undertake primarily applied research & development but work collaboratively with academia and industry on more strategic or fundamental research. The focus of this talk and the work I oversee is looking at the technical challenges with providing universal services to an increasingly diverse audience needs & desired experiences.
- As agents of change, BBC R&D wants to work with industry to steer towards a coherent view of the future, a view of the future which we think of as a NEW BROADCASTING SYSTEM. We will achieve this new definition of ‘broadcasting’ through partnerships, conversations, collaborations, and standardisation with industrial & academic partners to collectively define what this new broadcasting system is and ultimately to make it real—to build it. To create a shared solution for industry. We currently believe the new broadcasting system has these considerations at its core: A new definition of broadcast The value of metadata Standardisation IP end-to-end systems with data captured and manipulated in software Hybrid distribution models Immersive services which are distinguished by their high quality As our view and the debate matures, we will refine our new broadcasting system vision.
- Lets refocus talk towards audiences and accessibility
- Our own current services base our definition on the standard ‘official’ definition used in the UK DDA used in the government’s anti-discrimination legislation but it is much more than this and we are sensitive to a potentially contenious term.
- We are talking about a significant & growing number who are typically but not exclusively older, less likely to be in work, heavy media users and only half of them would view themselves as disabled. Critically the accessibility issues are not just those with visual / hearing impairments. The word ‘disabled’ can be highly contentious. For some it is a positive label, for others a negative label and for others irrelevant. Important to recognise that whether or not someone thinks of themselves as disabled is only 50% correlated with whether or not they have an impairment that has a substantial adverse long term effect. And it makes very little difference to attitudes to disability
- Why does this matter to BBC? Reaching all audience Regulatory and legal requirements Disability Discrimination Act creates legal obligations for online content OFCOM regulates broadcast content
- Looking at the broadcast state of the art… Started significantly in the mid-1970s when R&D helped develop the Teletext system for embedding subtitles for hearing-impaired viewers into the unused lines of the analogue TV signal which was then launched as Ceefax, the system found applications way beyond accessibility and is still in use today. Possibly the first ever data services experienced by UK audiences. In fact, BBC R&D engineers and scientists have been researching the constraints and capabilities of our audience's perception for much longer than, in order than viewers and listeners can understand the pictures and sound we broadcast.
- In 1990s development of the DVB digital TV standards - BBC R&D led research which produced DVB subtitles (for hearing impaired) and Audio Description (for visually-impaired users) systems - significantly this included standardisation, production tools, embedding and distribution methods, field trials, user testing and some receiver technology. At the start of this century, enabled by digital, the BBC increased its TV services from 2 to 8 just as the new Communications Act created Ofcom and mandated digital broadcasters to achieve Access Service targets of 80%/10%/5% within ten years This resulted in huge increase in access service material requirements- particularly subtitling. As a result, BBC R&D developed, licenced and ultimately open-sourced transformative production tools - used speech recognition technology to change the way subtitles were produced - much more productive subtitling function - provision for some hard-to-subtitle services (live, regional) for the first time. BBC TV achieved 100% subtitling in 2008.
- Currently BBC provides access services on satellite (Sky / FreeSat), Cable and DTT (FreeView, FreeviewHD) and will provide to youView In 2009-10 the BBC broadcast the following Television: * 53,000 hours (>99.8%) subtitled * 5,756 hours (>13%) Audio Described * 2,390 hours (>5%) Signed But this creates significant technical challenges in production how to create high quality material – a talk for another time…
- There is an increasing strategic need to have access service provision for programmes delivered and viewed online & on-demand Between 2003-2010 R&D took a leading role in the W3C Timed-Text Working Group, helping create and edit the Timed-Text Markup Language (TTML) spec, standardised in 2009 As of early 2011, around 90% of TV programmes on the iPlayer are now subtitled with TTML and the Working Group have told we are, by far, the biggest user of the standard so far. The two examples shown on slide highlight ongoing challenges of improved richness of broadcast TV systems – lack of color info to differentiate speakers and also inclusion of Audio Description. Worth noting but not covered in this talk that BBC Future Media works actively within Web Accessibility Standards – currently Ian Pouncey is actively participating in W3C – Web Accessibility Initiative’s Education & outreach Working Group.
- <OPTIONAL hide unless need web access pov> - In parallel, on the web, it has always been important that bbc.co.uk conforms W3C standard and guidelines - BETSIE (BBC Education Text-to-Speech Internet Enhancer), software developed by George Auckland's team in the Education department - reprocessed html content to make it more accessible for visually-impaired and the screen reading speech synthesis technology often used on PCs - released freely and was (is?) used on many thousands of non-BBC websites.
- <OPTIONAL hide unless need web access pov> new web accessibility standard from BSI : BS8878. four key aspects of web accessibility: • the changing drivers and motivations behind web accessibility - the ethical, legal and regulatory, and (for those aspects of the BBC which are commercial) commercial reasons why web accessibility is important • the changing nature of the web itself - from simple informational text & image websites, through increasing amounts of interactivity and multimedia (including the specific opportunities and challenges of video-on-demand, web-based apps and games), through the shift from users being anonymous consumers of web content to being active and recognised publishers and collaborators, and through the increasing diversification of the web onto a multiplicity of devices such as mobile phones, tablets and connected TVs and set-top boxes • the changing understanding of how best to respond to the changing needs of different groups of disabled and older people in their use of the web - from desk research on these needs, through the growing importance of testing products with real disabled users, through to recognising the importance of canvassing disabled and older people's views in earlier stages of web production • the changing organisational structure and roles in web production teams - from an initial emphasis on accessibility of technology, through to recognising the key importance of ensuring user-experience designers and usability specialists understand accessibility, to the current focus on the web product manager as the key player in making the strategic decisions which most strongly influence the accessibility of a product While it is a British Standard, it has also been reviewed by over 100 global accessibility experts to make sure it harmonises with international and other countries' national standards. We've also tried to ensure BS8878 reflects the reality of current web production and the directions it is likely to go in, in the future. So it includes the best the drafting committee could currently say about: • inclusive design and personalisation - it provides advice on the relationship between inclusive design and user-personalised approaches to web accessibility, including when to consider providing additional accessibility provisions • accessibility across devices - it provides advice on how to find information on making web product on new platforms such as mobile apps and internet TV (such as YouView ) accessible • accessibility under new legislation - it provides information on how the recent Equality Act 2010 impacts on web accessibility
- Lets us pause and consider the future challenges
- BBC R&D has enabled strong accessibility for linear broadcast TV in UK for significant needs groups (hearing / visual impairment) But as this slide illustrates… - changing audience and changing service / platform slate mean we have to keep innovating - Audience is ageing; more multiple impairments, more motor impairment, more cognitive impairments - Accessibility needs fragmenting / harder to model - Platform proliferation (STBs, mobile, games platforms, IPTV) As our public broadcaster purposes define (number 6) we have desire to get best out of emerging media technologies now and in future. To achieve this we need widely-adopted standards for access services, for assistive tech connectivity, for profiles of personal requirements for inclusion of all licence fee payers, and done with maximum cost efficiencies.
- Here is an example of some of our current work – the Universal Control API We recently brought this to W3C Web meets TV workshop in Berlin earlier this year. Our thinking is that” Don't build every accessibility feature into the television or set-top-box … UI will always be a compromise. Instead the box serves an API for controlling its functions. Leave the UI up to the client. Expose identifiers, metadata, state and focuses on the very real technical challenge of synchronising services on multiple devices. Enables much more than accessibility: multi-screen / multi-device applications and web content. Past year: devising an API and building prototypes and currently we have just published a Beta specification and open sourced a server implementation
- So the U C Server implemented on MythTV – and released to public – go and have a play, give us feedback, challenge our current thinking / implelemntation. For those interested it is: RESTful web API. XML. Discovery mechanisms. Data model: Content (video, audio, interactive apps) Sources (channels, streaming services, home servers ...) Outputs (displays) Acquisitions (booked recordings, scheduled downloads …) Application Extension Mechanism “ Universal” for TVs, internet radios, media centres, ... Not about streaming the media or exporting the TV UI.
- Here are a number of screen shots of various Accessibility prototypes on laptop, Tablet, smartphone iPhone remote control app - Text to Speech appliance that helps make set-top boxes accessible Here it is ‘reading out’ the now & next key elements from EPG. We are currently working to test assistive technologies
- Here is using text to speech to read out the programme description from the EPG Accessibility iPhone remote control app Text to Speech appliance that helps make set-top boxes accessible
- This is a directors commentary application to provide on the smartphone the following options: Original audio But also Audio description (mixed and unmixed) as well as directors commentary (mixed and unmixed). This is showcases how you can ‘shift’ elements of the UI and experience off the TV and onto the personal device.
- Other recent projects
- Fragmented accessibility need imply wider range of access services (BBC, 3rd-part providers) - e.g. emotional subtitles for deaf / autistic children; audio description for cognitively-impaired - Main use case is Clean Audio; alternative soundtrack with reduced background music and effects - BBC R&D have developed technology to deliver synchronised audio (or subtitle or video) components over internet/RTP and sync with the main broadcast in the receiver - enables accessibility but also general functionality (e.g. foreign-language, director's commentary) More recent work by BBC vision – supported by R&D – has identified a number of key production steps when recording / filming media can reduce many of the audience concerns
- This is illustration of an original ethnographic study undertaken into multi-user groups of remote controls. Following on R&D has built a number of prototypes exploring the challenges & opportunities for remote control devices (including assistive technology).
- R&D and BBC User Experience & Design teams in Manchester have been reviewing / undertaking user testing of the use of fonts on various screen types and sizes.
- What is emerging is that by developing technical solutions to overcome major constraints (to provide equivalent access services for all) that there are benefits for broader audience. This form of inclusive design for subtitles can reap innovation opportunities for future data driven services. A couple of great experiments from R&D using subtitle data to enrich future BBC products & services… Top left is Data Art – a collaboration with Uni of Westminster, BBC Learning & BBC Backstage – this example shows a way of generating search terms for BBC news feeds alongside Live Broadcast on IPTV. To the right is an example of a ‘Dashboard’ created automatically from Channelography data exploring what stories (people, places) and genres are trending across BBC output and enabling users to find archive clips in future. Bottom left is ‘snippets’ a prototype pre-production tool being trialed by BBC staff teams providing web search through subtitles of all broadcast content in last 3.5 years and allowing users to share clips or snippets across production teams.
- Another example of this form of inclusive design is a Viewing Companion developed by R&D’s prototyping team to deliver dual screen extras – deeper and more extensive content synced alongside the main broadcast.
- So in summary BBC R&D has enabled strong accessibility for linear broadcast TV but changing audience and changing service / platform slate mean we have to keep innovating BBC Public Purpose no6 - BBC viewers, listeners and users can expect the BBC to help everyone in the UK to get the best out of emerging media technologies now and in the future. Going forward we need widely-adopted standards for access services
- Finally a parting quote that to me defines why everyone is in the room …